Born and raised in an extremely educated and loving family in Tehran, Iran things took a frightening turn when Dr. Thais Aliabadi turned 7 and she was thrust into the midst of war. Her wealthy family went from having nannies, drivers, and vacations, to at times hiding in her basement for shelter. Her father’s passport was taken from him, and his bank accounts frozen, making for an extremely difficult upbringing until the age of 17 when her family moved to Los Altos, CA, in her senior year of high school. She went from being popular in school to leaving her homeland and starting over. She couldn’t speak a word of English, so started in ESL immersion before going on to graduate on time.

After studying for two years at Foothill Community College, to hone her English skills, she transferred to UC Berkeley. She went from a small classroom setting to massive, and because she still struggled to speak English, she found a unique way to learn. “…in my biology class there would be 800 students. And I remember I studied, but I had nothing else to do. I had no friends. I couldn’t speak the language. So, I would just lock myself in and study for 12-hour days, every single day and because I didn’t know the system and I didn’t speak the language well, I would memorize every single word of the book…”

Despite these challenges, she graduated at the top of her class with a degree in Biology. Dr. Aliabadi took the next logical career step and applied for medical school, but she was hit with another hurdle when she took her MCAT and performed poorly in the verbal reasoning and essay portions of the test. Her counselor advised that her English was not strong enough to go to medical school, so he recommended she get a masters in physiology and take a program at Georgetown, where she would sit with medical students, and if she did well, they would accept her into medical school.

She secured a spot in that extremely competitive program, again, at the top of her class, subsequently getting into medical school at Georgetown. After graduating she was accepted into the residency program at The University of Southern California. Her boyfriend at the time, Kambiz Tehranchi, whom she met at Berkeley, also found a job in LA so they were able to build a life together in southern California, and after 10 years of dating got married.

Looking toward her future, the ambitious student targeted Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a top national hospital, for the start of her career, however she had a cruel awakening when she faced discrimination after her first two interviews. The initial meeting was with a doctor at a high-end practice, and after the interviewer pointedly told her that she was looking for a blonde-haired blue-eyed doctor her eyes opened to the realities of life. “Just because you’re a good student, doesn’t mean you’re going to get a job… that was the first time in my life, that I felt prejudice,” Dr. Aliabadi recalls.

On her second interview, he told her the position had already been filled. “I got up and grabbed my file,” she says and then told him, “…remember my name because in two years you’ll be sorry you didn’t hire me.”